6 hits and Misses from Mitt Romney's foreign adventure

Anybody who knows Mitt Romney knows that he’s passionate about the Olympics. His rescue of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics is something that Romney, a proud American and proud Mormon, delights in talking about.

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So it was nothing less than stunning to see how he squandered his opportunity to remind voters of what he did a decade ago in Utah. Not only did he step on his London trip by critiquing this year’s summer games, but he and his campaign made little effort to highlight his turnaround, to borrow a favorite Romney word, of Salt Lake. Indeed, for much of the time that Romney was in London, his campaign was largely focused on sending out emails and holding surrogate events meant to draw attention to Obama’s “You didn’t build that” comment. At a time when millions of Americans were tuning in to the opening ceremony in London, there was nothing being done to focus attention on Romney’s Olympic experience. No commercials, no videos and not even any access for the reporters on the road with Romney to go with him to the events he attended.

When Stuart Stevens, Romney’s chief strategist, was downplaying the boss’s Olympics gaffe, he unintentionally revealed the disconnect that exists between candidate and staff on the games — something that may explain why there was no big push to use London to bring up Salt Lake.

“It is the Olympics,” Stevens told reporters Tuesday in a final spin session before heading home. “It’s about painting your face blue and shouting USA. It’s a sporting event, it’s not a summit. It’s not a G-7. It’s not an international negotiation. It’s a big sporting event. And I think that you have to have some sense of perspective on these things and just kind of laugh about it. “

To Romney, though, the Olympics are a central part of his public identity and that’s why it seems odd that there was no major campaign effort on his ties to the games when he was in London.

News-free zone:

It’s understandable that Romney took off across the Atlantic with a pledge not to criticize the president on foreign soil, but in doing so he limited his capacity to make news. Unwilling to hammer Obama, or roll out any new policies while abroad, Romney served up mostly a series of photo ops to the press corps traveling with him.

That is except when he made unintentional news. Which is the point. Without anything of substance to say beyond what he’s repeatedly said in the U.S., he created something of a vacuum that he then filled with his own gaffes.

And he made the situation worse by effectively hiding from his traveling press corps for much of his trip, taking three questions at the beginning but then not holding a single other press conference. He conducted a series of TV interviews but offered significantly less access than Obama did on his overseas campaign trip four years ago.

Romney is in the midst of a harmful, self-reinforcing cycle in which he commits a gaffe, grows angry at the press for covering it and punishes them by refusing to take questions because he doesn’t want to be asked about the gaffe.

This has created an almost toxic relationship between Romney and his traveling press corps.

When a Romney aide created yet another distraction for the campaign by cursing at reporters Tuesday — saying “Shove it” and “Kiss my ass” — it was because the press was trying to do something they had been mostly unable to do: ask questions of the candidate.

There seemed to be much forethought into optics and advance on this trip, but little into strategy and message. Did Romney really think he could do an almost weeklong trip overseas with photo ops and little news? Some on Romney’s campaign didn’t want him to go on this trek in the first place. For much of the journey, that felt abundantly clear.

Perhaps Mitt could retroactively not have gone on this little trip. I know you folks in the press love this "everyone is to blame" or "it's not bad" story lines to keep in line with your unbiased profession..but let's be a honest. This was an absolute disaster. I lost count the number of times he had to "clarfy" something he said or "backtrack" on something his advisor/spokesman said. This was the lowest of lowest hurdle Romney could have chosen...short of going to Candyland, this trip could not have been more benign..but Mitt being Mitt managed to insult just about everyone.

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The Brits "You guys are unprepared"

The Israelis "It's true you guys love money"

The Palestinians "You guys are pathetic cuz you haz no money"

The best thing Mitt could have done was self deported earlier. He comes back with his head down..and no matter how you guys in the press spin it, we've all seen the headlines. Google Mitt Romney "Shove It' you get a million hits. Nuff Said.

To "Witnessing FAILURE": I'm not defending the reporters, but the campaign set up things for that scrum by providing only one, three-question press availability on the entire trip; not understanding that shows not-ready-for-primetime lack of professionalism. As for embarrassment, the Romney aide who profanely yelled "Kiss my ass" on the that hallowed ground site kind of took the cake. And unlike the reporters, his behavior reflected on the man who might be president.

The Truth. 6 days......six hits from Donkey Media.....No sticks.....another week of Donkeyism.....The donkey media will manufacture an average of 1 gaffe per day....Romney...or staff....and Ignore the incredible Donkeyism day after day after day.

The conservative collective is in full panic mode because they know their deeply flawed candidate ruined his chance to prove to the world that he’s up to the task of handling international diplomacy.

The world compared his trip full of gaffes and idiocy with then candidate Obama’s trip that proved to the world that he is someone the world can respect.

The British clearly think Romney is a joke, and they are clearly devoted to Obama.

Romney proved that he’ll jump at the chance to go to war with Iran and support the oppression and occupation of the Palestinian people, simply because a few potentates in Israel, and one multi-billionaire in America, snaps their fingers.

Romney proved that he surrounds himself with small minded, bitter jerks who hurl gutter vulgarities, and that he is terrified of the press.

Conservatives and Republicans are supporting an obviously incompetent nincompoop.

They know this, of course. But they cannot do anything but support him, and clean up after his every gaffe, because if they don’t then Obama – the man they hate and fear above all others – might win.

And in a few weeks they’ll all line up in Tampa to debase themselves by genuflecting in front of, and screaming out high hosannas to, someone they know is as much a real conservative as I am.

They will sway and chant in rapturous adoration of their newest beloved prophet of profit, even though they know he’s an idiot liar.

They do this because they hate Obama, and are terrified of him.

And for this, conservatives and Republicans demand that we Americans respect them.

So Romney offended a bunch of Palestinian terrorists and the LIBs get offended. It actually shows where the LIB's true colors are without a doubt. The LIBs will sell Israel out in a heartbeat to muslim terrorists. Now what I am offended about is the fact that Barrack HUSSEIN Obama continues to drive our economy straight into the ground. I DID BUILD IT, Mr HUSSEIN!!!

Hilarious article. Obama has bungled foreign policy and the media is bravely attempting to cover it up. Hey MSM - we simply do not care about Romney. It's about defeating Obama. It's complex, but it's actually that simple.

How did Mitt get so far in political campaigning and not have the skills to know any phrase or sentence would be misconstrued? It's his personality. Mitt doesn't have the subtlety, the ability to quickly put himself into someone else's shoes and imagine what their response would be. Like many gifted people he has a touch of Asperger's.

Conservatives and Republicans know that not only do they not like Mitt Romney one bit - and are only supporting him because the elite and the establishment demand it of them - but they now also know that the rest of the world thinks he’s beneath contempt.

Look closely at this picture from Romney in Poland.

Whose name is on that sign in the background?

That’s right .

Ron Paul.

Nobody likes Mitt Romney, for all the obvious reason.

Well, nobody who isn’t kissing RINO but – again.

George Bush.

John McCain.

And now this strong REAL conservative.

Conservatives are obedient little sheep to the elite and the establishment who manipulate them with Obama hate and Obama fear.

How did Mitt get so far in political campaigning and not have the skills to know any phrase or sentence would be misconstrued?

Gosh you make him sound like Biden without daring to say it, when in fact what hes said is legit , just not to an extreme left press corp who wants only to cater to Obama again simply to not have to go through the embarrassment of admitting the vetting mistakes they commited in 2007 - 08.

Folks, many Journalists have indeed vetted Obama now, just not the Progressive/Liberal ones.

Mitt's a friend of Israel, Obama's an enemy. Mitt's policies will turn the economy around, Obama's will prolong our pain--and ultimately make it worse.

****The American economic downturn of the last 5 years is the SINGLE biggest repudiation of socialist economics that the world has seen since the fall of the Soviet Union.****

Yes, the last 5 years has been a runaway spendathon where the Piglosi-Reid Congress along with President Bush (who hardly ever vetoed spending bills) handed us a debt-laden economy with a bad mortgage time bomb attached!

Hey Democrats, thanks for that Community Reinvestment Act--another socialist redistributionist program from the Dems that blew our economy apart.

So Obama inherits an economy in trouble and what does he do? That's right, HE DOUBLES DOWN ON THE SPENDING, and makes things FAR worse than they need to be! Like his socialist hero, FDR, he receives an economy in trouble, and puts it immediately into critical condition. Socialist policies of insane spending, unpayable debt, strangling and suffocating regulations on businesses, and lawless behavior from the office of the president have done horrendous amounts of damage to the economy.

The real unemployment rate is over 10.8%, and when you count the UNDERemployed, the true numbers become far worse. ALL of these problems are the direct result of the socialist policies of Piglosi-Reid-Bush, and then Piglosi-Reid-OBAMA!

Socialism is the problem ladies and gents. Will you have the courage to face that fact??

Because this was at top, above the fold......I will address it here......How freaking Weak is Politico? How do they determine which "stories" they will allow comments on? How ate up with Donkey are they?... So sick....so donkey.